Police Say Fire Led to Indoor Laguna Beach Marijuana Farm

The high-tech, indoor marijuana farm had no wafting odor to betray its presence to neighbors, police said.

However electrical appliances nurturing more 300 marijuana plants inside a Laguna Beach home started a fire that led to a premature harvest Tuesday night, police said.

Laguna Beach police entered the home on a warrant and found fans, humidifiers, automatic sprinklers and lights supporting a large crop of marijuana, Lt. William Cavenaugh said. The confiscated electrical equipment was valued by police at more than $43,000.

A small fire earlier that morning in the home’s garage, believed caused by an overloaded electrical system, tipped them off to the farm, Cavenaugh said.

Robert Gelinas, 28, and his wife, Michelle, 22, were arrested at their rented residence on suspicion of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale.

Ordinarily, “with that much pot, you’d be able to smell it a mile around,” Cavenaugh said, but the suspect “had the place sealed airtight, and no one was the wiser. His next-door neighbors didn’t know what he was up to.”

The home’s owner, Doug Hand, said he was “quite surprised, and somewhat disgusted” when he learned of the farm.

Gelinas told Hand he was an inventor and had been renting the home since April, Hand said.

Orange County DEA resident agent-in-charge Ray Tripicchio said large-scale marijuana cultivation is more common in Northern California.

“It’s a fairly rare thing (here),” Tripicchio said. “And 300 plants is a fairly large operation.”

Gelinas was transported to Orange County Jail. His bail was set at $100,000 and arraignment scheduled for today. Michelle Gelinas was released on her own recognizance to care for the couple’s child, Laguna Beach police said.